Modeling of the 50-year dynamics of the reclaimed lands vulnerability to wind soil erosion in the region of Pripyat Polesye

Environmentally unsafe agricultural use of soil and land resources is caused by the high share of reclaimed land in the Pripyat Polesye region and global climate change. The research aims to evaluate the long-term vulnerability of the soil cover, utilizing the example of a large agricultural enterprise spanning over 9,200 hectares in a zone of hydro-technically drained peat-bog and alluvial soils in the central and terraced floodplain of the Pripyat River (Belarus). The assessment of the degree of vulnerability is expressed on the basis of the genetic characteristics of soils in accordance with the soil-hydrological constants: the moisture content of the capillary fringe rupture and the limiting field capacity. The dynamics of spatial and temporal changes in soils by groups of vulnerability to wind erosion is controlled in geoinformation software based on specialized spectral brightness indices according to satellite data for plant vegetative season. Dependences of the degree of vulnerability on heterogeneity of soil cover structure and intensity of agricultural use of soils by types of land have been established. The obtained patterns can be used to develop adaptive landscape farming systems in the Polesye region and to forecast degradation processes of agricultural lands.